Trump administration to crack down on Chinese visas, applicants, Rubio says
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced plans to crack down on Chinese holders of student visas and ramp up scrutiny of new visa applicants from China and Hong Kong, escalating the Trump administration's confrontational approach to Beijing.
In a statement, Rubio said the State Department would work with the Department of Homeland Security to 'aggressively revoke' visas of Chinese students in the United States, 'including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.' He did not specify which areas of study would be targeted.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
28 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Trump appears to undercut US proposal to Iran, declaring he won't allow any uranium enrichment
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday appeared to undercut a proposal that was offered by his special envoy to Iran, saying he will insist that Tehran fully dismantle its nuclear enrichment program as part of any deal to ease crushing sanctions. Trump and Steve Witkoff, who is leading the negotiations for the U.S., have repeatedly offered inconsistent public messages about whether Iran would be allowed to retain the capacity to enrich uranium to lower levels for civilian purposes. The Trump administration maintains that it will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. The negotiations have been framed by Trump as both countries' best chance to avoid direct military conflict over Iran's nuclear program. Tehran, which denies seeking a nuclear weapon, has insisted that it will not agree to any deal that fully scraps its enrichment program. 'Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!' Trump wrote on social media. The White House didn't elaborate on the post. Trump's post comes after media reports that Witkoff's latest proposal to Tehran would allow Iran to retain low levels of enrichment for civilian uses like nuclear medicine and commercial power if it agrees to shut down its heavily protected underground sites for a period of time. The U.S. and Iran have engaged in several rounds of direct nuclear talks for the first time in years. Senior officials — including Witkoff and Trump himself — have said within the last few weeks that Iran would not be able to keep enriching uranium at any level. The proposal, reported by Axios and confirmed by two U.S. officials, called for the creation of a regional consortium to handle uranium enrichment for civilian uses — a plan first studied more than a decade ago in negotiations that led to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Trump was sharply critical of that agreement — which also allowed set limits on uranium enrichment but permitted Iran to maintain such a capacity — and withdrew the U.S. from it in 2017 during his first term. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic negotiations. The International Atomic Energy Agency found that Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels since its last update in February, according to a confidential report released by the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Saturday. Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, but Iranian officials have increasingly suggested that Tehran could pursue an atomic bomb. 'President Trump has made it clear that Iran can never obtain a nuclear bomb,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement before Trump's post. 'Special Envoy Witkoff has sent a detailed and acceptable proposal to the Iranian regime, and it's in their best interest to accept it. Out of respect for the ongoing deal, the Administration will not comment on details of the proposal to the media.' The proposal that Trump appeared to undercut on Monday evening included significant concessions by the administration certain to anger Israel along with pro-Israel lawmakers in the United States. Several of the main points were essentially the same or very similar to conditions outlined in the 2015 nuclear deal. Early iterations of that agreement negotiated by the Obama administration also suggested the possibility of a regional consortium that would put Iranian uranium enrichment above a certain level under the control of Iran and its neighbors. The idea was scrapped, however, because of Gulf Arab nations' objections and Iranian suspicions of the ultimate aims of the consortium. People who were involved in the 18-month negotiations for the 2015 deal reacted immediately to reports that the Trump administration might allow Iran to continue with an enrichment program at any level, particularly after senior officials repeatedly said Iran would not be able to retain such programs. 'This proposal poses a moment of truth for critics of previous Iran nuclear negotiations/agreements (and) those who have called for a no-enrichment, full-dismantlement deal,' Dan Shapiro, Obama's former ambassador to Israel, wrote on X. 'Will they hold Trump to the same standard?'
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Cuba tried to improve its relations with the US by cooperating with Trump's deportation flights. It didn't work.
Countries throughout the Western Hemisphere and Africa are finding ways to take advantage of President Donald Trump's eagerness to thwart migration. But it's not working for Cuba. Even as Cuba continues to accept its citizens deported from the U.S., the island nation finds itself increasingly at odds with the Trump administration, a senior Cuban official told POLITICO. The deterioration in relations between Havana and Washington comes as Trump administration officials and members of the Cuban exile community have pushed for a tougher line on Cuban leadership, arguing that the communist government represents a major national security threat. The U.S. is also facing a wave of migration from Cuba that has seen hundreds of thousands of Cubans enter the country since the Covid-19 pandemic. In an exclusive interview, Johana Tablada, the top Cuban official in the country's foreign ministry that works on relations with Washington, said that the bilateral relationship is currently 'at zero' and that 'the State Department is not interested in having conversations with Cuba that have existed' even when both sides were most at odds in the past. She added that under President Donald Trump, she and Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio have been snubbed by the State Department when they visited Washington — a change from past administrations, where Cuban officials were at least granted meetings with their U.S. counterparts. The icy attitude from the Trump administration is surprising, per Tablada, given that Cuba proposed further dialogue with the United States on migration and has continued upholding a 2017 agreement between both countries allowing for deportation flights of Cuban nationals back to the island. Since Trump returned to the White House, Cuba has accepted five deportation flights. Tablada's comments suggest that caving to the Trump administration's anti-migration efforts in exchange for goodwill elsewhere has its limits. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, backed by former special envoy Mauricio Claver-Carone, has especially pushed for a tough line on Cuba. Claver-Carone said in February that the administration had 'very creative' policy options at its disposal to induce the collapse of Cuba's communist government, long a dream of many in Miami's Cuban exile community. The Trump administration restored Cuba in January to a list of state sponsors of terrorism and reinstated a barrage of other sanctions lifted at the end of the Biden administration. A new State Department policy has also threatened visa restrictions on government officials in Cuba and other countries found to be responsible for labor rights abuses against Cuban doctors on state-sponsored medical missions around the world — a major source of income for the Cuban government. Tablada blames the impasse in relations on those who advocate for maximum pressure on Cuba within the U.S. government. She denied allegations that Cuba mistreats doctors on medical missions or supports terrorist groups around the world. Tablada accused Rubio and others of stoking tensions to justify further reprisals. 'They're doing everything possible to blow up what's left of the relationship and the adult in the room is the Cuban government,' argued Tablada. 'If we did what they wanted, we'd be giving a pretext for those people who want to break off relations, create a migration crisis and prompt a military intervention from the United States.' The State Department and the White House National Security Council did not respond to requests for comment. Despite the headwinds, Tablada says Cuba remains undeterred in its effort to build strong ties with the American people. 'We're going to continue cultivating our relations with the United States, which have a long history and have been neighborly and reciprocal,' she said.
Wall Street Journal
31 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
Boulder Flamethrower Attack Suspect Charged With Hate Crime
Mohamed Soliman was charged with attempted murder and hate crime charges after an incendiary attack in Boulder, Colo. on a group that advocates for the release of hostages in Gaza. Photo: David Zalubowski/Associated Press
